Irene Rowan.

• Author: Anjum, Shehla
• Position: ICONIC ALASKANS - Dialogue with Irene Sparks Rowan - Interview

When Irene Sparks Rowan stepped off a plane in Bethel she carried a white umbrella and wore white boots, a white hat, and a pink raincoat. She was there to start her first job as a teacher at the high school. "I dressed as I had in college," she says.

It was August 1964 and it was rainy and windy. Rowan unfurled her white umbrella and walked toward the terminal. "In about five minutes my boots were brown, my hat blew away, my umbrella turned inside-out, and my raincoat was splattered with mud."

The arrival in Bethel marked the start of Rowan's adult life. Since then she has played a significant role in the passage of the Alaska Natives Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), run her own business, and served as a bank director. She also developed nonprofits that highlighted Alaska Natives and their cultures or advocated for Native rights. She is a respected leader whose counsel is sought by many.

Rowan had returned to Alaska only a few months earlier from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, with a BA in business education.

Bethel "was a culture shock," she says. "I came from Haines, from a land of trees, and here I was in the wide expanse of the tundra. There were no paved roads and most people spoke Yup'ik, which I didn't understand. It was not the Alaska I knew."

TWO WORLDS

The Alaska she knew was the Southeast--with its mountains, water, and trees. Rowan, a Tlingit Chilkat from the Gaanaxteidi clan of Klukwan, was born in Haines. Her mother, Mildred Hotch Sparks, came from Klukwan and was a matriarch of the clan. Her father William, originally from Kentucky, had been stationed at the army's Chilkoot Barracks in Haines during World War II.

Until she left for college, Rowan says, she "walked in two worlds" as did her mother, who had moved between family life in Haines and work and tribal life in Klukwan, heading the Chilkat Indian Village IRA and running its store. Rowan and her siblings attended school in Haines but spent time in Klukwan, especially in summer.

In Klukwan Rowan participated in memorial ceremonials and traditional events. "I gathered seaweed and berries, smoked fish, and put up the food for winter. Groceries were expensive and Haines got a boat with groceries only two or three times a year," Rowan says.

She also glimpsed a world, then already changing, when her mother went to trade with Canadian Indians. "She traded hooligan oil, seaweed, and salmon strips for tanned moose hide and gopher skins. She made our moccasins and jackets from the moose hide and blankets out of gopher skins."

Klukwan grounded Rowan in Tlingit culture and important Chilkat values of hard work, honesty, and trustworthiness. Her mother instilled the values of respect, caring, and sharing with others. In high school she helped form the Chilkat Dancers, strengthening her Tlingit identity further.

"That was a very exciting time for me. The Chilkat Dancers instilled in us the importance of our culture. It gave us pride in our art and language and what being a Chilkat meant." Being a dancer also increased her confidence, Rowan says. "I felt inspired when I put on my...